Water Purification on Inland Lakes/Waterways

[Tony B]

I have been doing some half-ass research in my spare time on water purification for inland lakes/waterways.

Here is what I came up with:

Reverse Osmosis will not work. It will remove bacteria but not chemical polution. As a matter of fact, the chemical polution especially oil and fuel, will destroy the seals and ruin your entire system.

Typical filter systems sold at the box stores from a few hundred to 500 bucks can filter out most if not all bacteria but also can not filter out chemical polution. These systems are usually all sorts of filters including charcoal, UV lights and Ozone lights.

Question: I was thinking of buying a water purification system and using it for bathing, showering*and dishwashing while using bottled water for drinking and cooking. *I will traveling the eastern US inland waterways, i.e Illinois, Ohio, Cumberland rivers etc.* Has anyone here done this or know anyone that has done this and how practical is this.?

 

[FF]

Most inland placers "city water" is at the dock in many marinas and while it may taste like crap, its fine for bathing, showering and dish washing .

Do what the rag baggers do, take on 20 gal of diesel, and 300 of water when stopping in a marina..

Most "bottled" water is simply filtered tap water , from one town over.

WE have found the most important addition to a cruiser is a tank dump ability.

Some town refills will have great!!! tasting water , so if you can rapidly empty the water tanks ( 2 inch valve to the bilge will do) you can then refill with good water.


ON our 90/90 we have 6 /35 gal tanks , and can keep great water for cooking seperiate from dish washing or shower water with ease. A Bronze Edison gallon a stroke pump can empty a tank rapidly when good water is found.

 

[rwidman]

I think any marina water you get in the USA will be fit for drinking (and of course, cooking and bathing). If it's city water, it is the same stuff the city residents are drinking. If it's well water, it's probably been tested by the local health department. If it's suspect, add a teaspoon or so of non-scented household bleach (chlorine) for every twenty gallons you take on. This will simulate the treatment given to city water.

As FF pointed out "bottled water" is often just city water that's been filtered and then bottled. If you're really concerned, grocery stores and Walmarts sell purified drinking water by the gallon for under a dollar.


-- Edited by rwidman on Thursday 29th of December 2011 07:36:39 AM

 

[Tony B]

The reason I want to be able to use river or lake water (if it is clean to begin with) is to reduce the amount of stops required just for water. This will allow us to use all we want.

We are old rag-baggers and like to anchor out a lot. Unlimited water would sure be a nice luxury. *

 

[RickB]

Look at the Katadyn Expedition or a similar product.

 

[Larry M]

Tony B wrote:
I have been doing some half-ass research in my spare time on water purification for inland lakes/waterways.

Here is what I came up with:

Reverse Osmosis will not work. It will remove bacteria but not chemical polution. As a matter of fact, the chemical polution especially oil and fuel, will destroy the seals and ruin your entire system.

Typical filter systems sold at the box stores from a few hundred to 500 bucks can filter out most if not all bacteria but also can not filter out chemical polution. These systems are usually all sorts of filters including charcoal, UV lights and Ozone lights.

Question: I was thinking of buying a water purification system and using it for bathing, showering*and dishwashing while using bottled water for drinking and cooking. *I will traveling the eastern US inland waterways, i.e Illinois, Ohio, Cumberland rivers etc.* Has anyone here done this or know anyone that has done this and how practical is this.?

After your RO system use a carbon filter which will*remove the organic chemicals.* Heavy metals, no.* Oil and fuel float on water.* The inlet for a RO system should be*well below the water line.* If you see a sheen on the water, don't use your system there.* Our RO system*has an oil/water separator on it.* Petroleum is the death of RO membranes but you have the same issues in salt water as in fresh.* Your biggest problem using an RO system in the waterways you mentioned will be the suspended solids.* You'll be going through pre-filters on a regular basis but*the water quality will not be affected.* What you are suggesting is done all the time and I wouldn't hesitate to drink the water if your system is functioning properly.

 

[FF]

Walmarts sell purified drinking water by the gallon for under a dollar.


Like "Hi FI" , "purified" has no meaning.

 

[rwidman]

FF wrote:
Walmarts sell purified drinking water by the gallon for under a dollar.


Like "Hi FI" , "purified" has no meaning.

If it makes you feel better, they also sell distilled water for the same price. "Distilled" does have a specific meaning.*

The purified water sold in grocery stores is going to be as good or better than average city water.

Most humans can tolerate drinking water that's a little less than "pure".* Otherwise, we would all be dead.

*

 

[Tony B]

Thanks Chas.

We currently have a 150 gal. water tank and we can go about 3 days on that under normal circumstances while traveling. . I was just wondering how nice it would be to be to not have to stop and take on water all of the time. 300 Gals would work for me.

*

Tony B

 

[jleonard]

Tony B wrote:
Thanks Chas.

We currently have a 150 gal. water tank and we can go about 3 days on that under normal circumstances while traveling. . I was just wondering how nice it would be to be to not have to stop and take on water all of the time. 300 Gals would work for me.

*

Tony B

*Using 50 gal per day is a lot of use* if you are talking 2 people. That is exponentially more than we use while travelling

 

[Chrisjs]

Tony B.

Unless you expect to be in areas where there is significant contamination from oil, sewage, etc. should be able to purify the fresh/brackish lake water perfectly adequately for most uses (probably including drinking, especially if boiled before consumption). Simple domestic RO systems designed to purify well water are adequate for this task. Since you are purifying freshwater rather than desalinating seawater, the pressure required is much less and RO membrane flow rates are higher. I would begin by checking out domestic RO systems at Home Depot and adding better prefiltration to protect the RO from blockage caused by particulate in the inlet water, and carbon filtration to protect the RO against chlorine during backflushing with water from your tanks that may contain chlorine from shore-based fill-ups. I would expect such a system will run on 110V power whereas our desalination system requires 240V ac. By the way, a desalination system will not operate on fresh water!!

Chris

 

[FF]

"Simple domestic RO systems designed to purify well water are adequate for this task. "

These use about 18-20 gal of thruput to create 1 gal of cleaner water ,

50 Psi or so is required for these under counter systems to operate.

 

[Larry M]

Chrisjs wrote:
...*By the way, a desalination system will not operate on fresh water!!

_______________________________________________

Most desalination systems will work in fresh water.* It doesn't make a lot of sense to do it*based on the cost of the system if all you want to do is clean up fresh water though.* $500 vs $5,000.*

Our RO system runs at 800-900 psi in sal****er and gives us 25-30 GPH per hour fresh water.* When we were up a river in El Salvador I reduced*the pressure down to less than 100 psi and was getting over 30 GPH.** You can even run your RO*water through the system*twice and the water will be of high enough quality to put in you wet cell batteries.* This as per both Sprectra Water Makers and Village Marine.* Some RO units that are electronically/pc controlled may not be able to accept the fresh water because of the probes that are used but the pumps and membranes can.